By Joe Guzzardi
02/16/2004
The immigration question I'm most frequently asked is: "How will this all end?"
Chillingly often, an accompanying question is: "Will frustrated Americans eventually resort to random violence?"
By "this" concerned citizens mean two things: the continued and ever-higher levels of unchecked immigration; and the deaf ear the federal government turns toward impassioned pleas by Americans for action.
The cry from all corners of the United States is "Do something, do anything — but please stop pretending that 'this' will all work out."
The all-out aggressive, never-ending push by Mexico and its US-based lobbyists to overwhelm the cowardly federal government has, from the grassroots perspective, reached its absolute limit.
We're been good guys. We play by the rules. Back in civics class, we learned that as part of the democratic process we should write and call our elected officials.
I sent my first FAX over ten years ago. I write several hundred e-mails a year.
I don’t have diddley to show for it.
My first Op-ed pleading for common sense in immigration was published fifteen years ago. More than 30 million immigrants have arrived during that decade and a half. Or is it 50 million? No one really knows.
Last month, I spoke at Barbara Coe’s California Coalition for Immigration Reform. The standing-room-only audience was young and old; black, white and Asian. And the mood was a not-so-quiet rage. If we hadn’t been obligated to vacate the building at 11:00PM, we'd still be there talking about the impact of illegal immigration on schools, hospitals, wages, sprawl, sanctuary cities — you name it. If any reader can think of an aspect of our lives that is not adversely affected by illegal immigration, drop me a note. (Please: no letters about the perceived benefits of low wages. I'm paying more for almost everything today than I ever have — and so are you.)
Tempers are rising. Americans don’t like being ignored. They don’t like having their noses rubbed in it.
If we want to end the insanity, what options do we have? We can’t use history to guide us. The massive level of immigration that is changing American demographics is unparalleled in world history.
What else is boiling over that might push otherwise peaceful beings too far?
Consider:
The above represents only the tiniest fraction of thorns in our side. Add to them the daily reminders that illegal immigration is the freight train that keeps on rolling. Nothing stops it — not 9/11, not an increased number of OTMs (Other than Mexican) caught at the border, not shoot-outs involving illegal aliens…and especially not a president who has made a political career out of talking, out of both sides of his mouth, about American safety.
Twenty years ago, Carlos Loret de Mola, a Mexican journalist, wrote that the "large migratory wave (of Mexicans) by an ant-like multitude, stubborn, unarmed, and carried on in the face of the best-armed nation on earth" will ultimately return the Southwest to "the jurisdiction of Mexico without the firing of a single shot."
I'm sure that Loret de Mola was speaking about shots fired by Mexicans. He assumed that American citizens are willing to remain completely passive while the United States becomes Mexico.
Most Americans would neither encourage nor condone violence. But our rulers should note: such is the state of the immigration controversy that the possibility of violence is being routinely discussed — albeit academically.
It would be a bitter irony if the provisions of the Patriot Act turned out to be used to suppress, not terrorists, but American patriots.
And the majority of Americans — including the VDARE.COM editorial collective — aren’t even against immigration or diversity. But we don’t like having it shoved down our throats. And therein lies the rub.
Of course, the entire question of where "this" will end could be rendered moot in a heartbeat. All that has to happen is for President Bush to uphold his obligation to the people of the United States and announce that he will, from this moment forward, enforce federal immigration law.
That would be the best solution of all.
Otherwise, to quote the old chestnut: "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."
One way or another, America’s immigration disaster will be brought to an end.
Joe Guzzardi, an instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, has been writing a weekly newspaper column since 1988. This column is exclusive to VDARE.COM.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.